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Most people here saying it's a matter of taste. It's not really, you either have correct WB and tint or not. And if the WB or tint is off you correct it. To get a different colour/taste you adjust other parameters.
The main problem is that with artificial or mixed lighting there isn’t a true white to begin with. Then it all comes down to a subjective taste of what looks right.
 
Frankly, my more IT-oriented friends will not touch iPhone for free. They are all specs and performance driven and buy accordingly. Basic example is 120 Hz refresh rate introduced this year as a major upgrade. Androids have had it for a few years now. Same goes for resolution, in which iPhone has not caught up. List goes on.
Pixel and WhatsApp can solve a problem of photography and group chats, OneDrive solves the rest.
The only sticky point for me is iWatch. It will soon kill Garmin. In some ways it has already. iWatch will not work without an iPhone. My second reason for the switch.
iWatch lol
 
Coming from a photography background, shooting on several dslrs, a couple film cams, and 4 different iPhones, your Pixel shots and the rest of the Android examples all skew hard blue. They're anything but neutral. Your corrected iPhone shots vary minutely from the original versions. But you should never expect a shot from any camera to not require post processing. Ever. Film, dslr, mirrorless, or phone. Shoot RAW and edit. If it's worth taking, it's worth massaging.
Exactly. They are glowing beyond anything one would see barring astigmatism. Also…I thought bright blue light was bad for our eyes 😂
 
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For year's, I have been traveling around the world, attending concerts, etc. taking photos with whatever iPhone I own, then showing my pics unedited to people both in real life and social media.

Everyone says they are beautiful. Glad I don't have a professional photographer friend who would complain about the color accuracy. Lol.

They are beautiful... which is why I keep using iPhone to take pictures. I like a lot of Apple's processing for the kinds of photos I take. More often than not the colors are fine and the white balance is within a few degrees of fine (i.e not image ruining). Why do you think I didn't include all of the photos from The Verge's review? It's because a lot of them looked great, similar to what I already get on 14 PM.

Sometimes the white balance skews too far blue -- to me that's fine.
Sometimes the white balance skews too far orange -- to me that's fine.
It's the intrusion of a weird green tone that I don't like and I notice it more often with iPhone photos than any other camera. For the millionth time I am not complaining about warm photos.

Here are some of the photos from The Verge's review that I think were fine:
cLNBlG8.jpg


mxtzLhe.jpg


VdgbUWw.jpg


87uL4JL.jpg


EZZ8Ue6.jpg
 
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Here's a spanner in the works for everyone that thinks I'm complaining about the white balance skewing warm, from an actual photo I took rather than something from The Verge. Here's the green menace appearing in a straight out of camera photo that is too COOL rather than warm.

It's. Not. About. Warmth. I like warm photos.
It's about green.

Yes it is very subtle in daylight shots like this one, but very noticeable in *some* night shots (nobody is going to gaslight me into believing the MKBHD example is a perfectly normal photo with no green issue)

Personally I would have made the edit even warmer but I don't want people debating warm vs. cool, only whether or not the green tinge exists.

14 Pro Max straight out of camera. Too cool for my taste, I prefer warmer photos generally speaking, but that's not the problem: see the green tint? Look at the houses in the background or the white of the car paint. Really noticeable in the pavement too.A slight adjustment I made to counteract the green. Extremely subtle but once you see it you can't unsee it. Again I would have pushed the photo further but then we're back to debating orange vs blue not green vs normal. The pavement now looks a bit more natural.
QQlBfJk.jpg
Ip32dtz.jpg

For those asking: this was viewed and edited on a MBP M1 Max machine with the color profile set to P3, True Tone off, and Night Shift off (obviously)
 
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Here's a spanner in the works for everyone that thinks I'm complaining about the white balance skewing warm, from an actual photo I took rather than something from The Verge. Here's the green menace appearing in a straight out of camera photo that is too COOL rather than warm.

It's. Not. About. Warmth. I like warm photos.
It's about green.

Yes it is very subtle in daylight shots like this one, but very noticeable in *some* night shots (nobody is going to gaslight me into believing the MKBHD example is a perfectly normal photo with no green issue)

Personally I would have made the edit even warmer but I don't want people debating warm vs. cool, only whether or not the green tinge exists.

14 Pro Max straight out of camera. Too cool for my taste, I prefer warmer photos generally speaking, but that's not the problem: see the green tint? Look at the houses in the background or the white of the car paint. Really noticeable in the pavement too.A slight adjustment I made to counteract the green. Extremely subtle but once you see it you can't unsee it. Again I would have pushed the photo further but then we're back to debating orange vs blue not green vs normal. The pavement now looks a bit more natural.
QQlBfJk.jpg
Ip32dtz.jpg
It is barely perceptible , but question did you tsp to focus or just let the camera focus for you.

Had you tapped to focus on the gray stones or the white car you might have gotten a more acceptable light balance. It may have skewed green because there the majority of the photo subject matter is green
 
It is barely perceptible , but question did you tsp to focus or just let the camera focus for you.

Had you tapped to focus on the gray stones or the white car you might have gotten a more acceptable light balance. It may have skewed green because there the majority of the photo subject matter is green

As far as I can remember it was auto. You make a good point though, for natural daylight shots you'll see this greenification happen when there's lots of green in the photo. To a degree that's to be expected from a lot of cameras across the color spectrum but for some reason I really hate it when that color happens to be green and I notice it more on iPhone shots than any other camera.
 
Here's a spanner in the works for everyone that thinks I'm complaining about the white balance skewing warm, from an actual photo I took rather than something from The Verge. Here's the green menace appearing in a straight out of camera photo that is too COOL rather than warm.
It's. Not. About. Warmth. I like warm photos.
It's about green.
Yes it is very subtle in daylight shots like this one, but very noticeable in *some* night shots (nobody is going to gaslight me into believing the MKBHD example is a perfectly normal photo with no green issue)
14 Pro Max straight out of camera. Too cool for my taste, I prefer warmer photos generally speaking, but that's not the problem: see the green tint? Look at the houses in the background or the white of the car paint. Really noticeable in the pavement too.
A slight adjustment I made to counteract the green. Extremely subtle but once you see it you can't unsee it. Again I would have pushed the photo further but then we're back to debating orange vs blue not green vs normal. The pavement now looks a bit more natural.
Congrats, you've discovered what every photographer has learned: photos require adjustment in post. Absolutely no camera takes a photo that everyone is perfectly fine with. Doesn't matter the brand, doesn't matter the resolution, doesn't matter the sensor size and sensitivity. OH and your eyes see light differently than mine which see differently than my wife's. I'm a migrainer which means I have more nerve endings and higher sensitivity to light and color than most people. Like on a level akin to tetrachromat women. Your initial photo is a touch green and your edit is a touch magenta. Truthfully a balanced photo exists between the two. You should be white balancing, which this is the issue and nothing else, as close to something 80% white as possible in the image. I'd probably go with the top edge of the tailgate on the truck in PS to rebalance. On the phone it's not as easy to do.
 
Congrats, you've discovered what every photographer has learned: photos require adjustment in post. Absolutely no camera takes a photo that everyone is perfectly fine with. Doesn't matter the brand, doesn't matter the resolution, doesn't matter the sensor size and sensitivity. OH and your eyes see light differently than mine which see differently than my wife's. I'm a migrainer which means I have more nerve endings and higher sensitivity to light and color than most people. Like on a level akin to tetrachromat women. Your initial photo is a touch green and your edit is a touch magenta. Truthfully a balanced photo exists between the two. You should be white balancing, which this is the issue and nothing else, as close to something 80% white as possible in the image. I'd probably go with the top edge of the tailgate on the truck in PS to rebalance. On the phone it's not as easy to do.
Sums it up nicely. Or you can opt into fuji x series for cheap or Leica on a higher end to get that more or less perfectly balanced jpg unless you don’t want to edit.
Everything meant to be edited - we just sometimes happen to live with whatever the camera outputs as an acceptable choice.
 
OP, you are getting lots of silly, defensive responses. It's like you personally attacked their creation.

Your post makes perfect sense and is valid. By default those photos are too warm and yellow.

I can understand being a fan of a company or a product, but to be a fan to the point where you excuse and defend faults or weaknesses is bizarre to me. People like that actually ruin products and hold back improvements simply because they never have anything to offer and excuse every bad decision.

The ones who improve products are people who like and enjoy it but still realize that it could be improved and constructively suggest improvements, like you did.

Don't waste your time and energy trying to open the mind of the close minded.
 
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Congrats, you've discovered what every photographer has learned: photos require adjustment in post. Absolutely no camera takes a photo that everyone is perfectly fine with. Doesn't matter the brand, doesn't matter the resolution, doesn't matter the sensor size and sensitivity.

That's a truism which doesn't excuse Apple from continuing to radically push the standard of what the iPhone camera is capable of. People have been saying this since the first iPhone which struggled with dynamic range. We were told that's just the limit of small sensors. Then they introduced HDR and all of a sudden the standard goes up. Then they work on computational photography and all of a sudden we're in point and shoot territory. The cycle continues.

Improvements will continue to be made and in 10 years we will be in a whole new realm of smartphone photography altogether, mark my words. In the meantime we don't need to be satisfied with cameras failing in some scenarios; Apple certainly aren't because otherwise why would they bother improving the iPhone camera every year.

OH and your eyes see light differently than mine which see differently than my wife's. I'm a migrainer which means I have more nerve endings and higher sensitivity to light and color than most people. Like on a level akin to tetrachromat women. Your initial photo is a touch green and your edit is a touch magenta. Truthfully a balanced photo exists between the two. You should be white balancing, which this is the issue and nothing else, as close to something 80% white as possible in the image. I'd probably go with the top edge of the tailgate on the truck in PS to rebalance. On the phone it's not as easy to do.

I'm not crazy about either photo and would edit a lot more in post if I cared about the photo, with that being said I'm a lot more okay the photo on the right than I am with the one on the left because leaning towards greens is a lot more anemic than leaning towards magenta.

What about you? Do you prefer the one that is a touch too green or the one that is a touch too magenta? Identifying the first as too green was all I wanted people to recognize but instead it became a discussion about Pixel vs iPhone, Warm vs Cool, Photographic Styles, and whether or not my edits are to people's tastes.

I think Apple, with raw access to the photo pipeline, could do a way better job at meeting that balanced photo you referenced.
 
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OP, you are getting lots of silly, defensive responses. It's like you personally attacked their creation.

Your post makes perfect sense and is valid. By default those photos are too warm and yellow.

I can understand being a fan of a company or a product, but to be a fan to the point where you excuse and defend faults or weaknesses is bizarre to me. People like that are actually eventually ruin and hold back improvements simply because they never have anything to offer.

The ones who improve products are people who like and enjoy it but still realize that it could be improved and constructively suggest improvements, like you did.

Don't waste your time and energy trying to open the mind of the close minded.


This.

He only gave valid criticism of a problem the iPhone has had for years. And I’d like to point out that it’s not just the color which can be corrected, at night it’s the odd muddy/crunchy looking details that don’t look good as well. Anyone can fix the color, but I’m not sure there’s a way to fix the muddy stuff.

Also, a huge factor people that say it doesn’t matter are overlooking is this. Many of us take a LOT of photos with our phones at times, whether we are on a vacation or at an amusement park. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d rather not have to sit down and spend hours editing hundreds/thousands of cell phone pics. Yea if I’m just taking a few pictures here and there it’s one thing, but what if I took 800 photos last night? Should I be expected to have to fix all 800 of them? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of using a smartphone? might as well just use a dedicated camera then if I’m gonna have to do that.
 
He complained about the white balance being too yellow not the crunchy photos issue, which I agree with and got rid of my 14 pro max for. The white balance issue is easily corrected by setting the photo style to cool which he prefers to warm or a few other suggestions given. There is nothing wrong per se with apples white balance again certain makers skew cool certain ones skew warm same with camera makers. Buy according to your taste or use the tools available on the phone to fix it before you take 800 photos.

White balance is a non issue it is easily fixed pre and post picture taking , the clarity, HDR crunchy thing is not and if the 15 pro max has it it will be going back when I get it as well. Early reviews look promising but again will judge for myself.
 
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This.

He only gave valid criticism of a problem the iPhone has had for years. And I’d like to point out that it’s not just the color which can be corrected, at night it’s the odd muddy/crunchy looking details that don’t look good as well. Anyone can fix the color, but I’m not sure there’s a way to fix the muddy stuff.

Also, a huge factor people that say it doesn’t matter are overlooking is this. Many of us take a LOT of photos with our phones at times, whether we are on a vacation or at an amusement park. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d rather not have to sit down and spend hours editing hundreds/thousands of cell phone pics. Yea if I’m just taking a few pictures here and there it’s one thing, but what if I took 800 photos last night? Should I be expected to have to fix all 800 of them? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of using a smartphone? might as well just use a dedicated camera then if I’m gonna have to do that.
Well you outlined it perfectly.
There are ton of options:
1) Send email to Cook and ask for help. Maybe they will listen.
2) vote with your dollar and stop buying apple stuff.
3) grab another phone or camera that you feel content with
4) go to apple and propose a better solution if you know how to make it better
5) create your own smartphone which will shoot better
6) edit photos if you wish

In conclusion, we all see green and mud.
Green - problems with processing. Maybe they lack good software engineers in a photo department. Or they have good ones but managers rejecting it.

Mud - sensor size physics limitation. No mud is only when you can gather enough light (iso, sensor size, aperture, shutter longer speed) which are not obtainable on a finger nail size camera.

Writing about this here would not help to resolve the issue. At the very least write to Tim and ask why their stuff is green and muddy.
 
Well you outlined it perfectly.
There are ton of options:
1) Send email to Cook and ask for help. Maybe they will listen.
2) vote with your dollar and stop buying apple stuff.
3) grab another phone or camera that you feel content with
4) go to apple and propose a better solution if you know how to make it better
5) create your own smartphone which will shoot better
6) edit photos if you wish

In conclusion, we all see green and mud.
Green - problems with processing. Maybe they lack good software engineers in a photo department. Or they have good ones but managers rejecting it.

Mud - sensor size physics limitation. No mud is only when you can gather enough light (iso, sensor size, aperture, shutter longer speed) which are not obtainable on a finger nail size camera.

Writing about this here would not help to resolve the issue. At the very least write to Tim and ask why their stuff is green and muddy.

Oh I forgot, thanks for reminding me that this forum only exists for cult-like adulation of Apple. On my way to Cupertino now to offer my help!
 
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Frankly, my more IT-oriented friends will not touch iPhone for free. They are all specs and performance driven and buy accordingly. Basic example is 120 Hz refresh rate introduced this year as a major upgrade. Androids have had it for a few years now. Same goes for resolution, in which iPhone has not caught up. List goes on.
Pixel and WhatsApp can solve a problem of photography and group chats, OneDrive solves the rest.
The only sticky point for me is iWatch. It will soon kill Garmin. In some ways it has already. iWatch will not work without an iPhone. My second reason for the switch.
The IT-oriented friends i have don't like the iPhone mainly because they like to tinker and customize the phone operating system, something that is clearly easier with Android than with iOS. NOT specs and performance.
 
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View attachment 2270389I hear a lot of what you are saying, but you have a finely controllable feature to make the photos less yellow by default.

Now if you want to make the argument that it should be better to begin with, that’s fine, but it is good to know that this exists.

If somebody can help me with what it is called, that would be great. You can access it by clicking the arrow at the top of the camera screen.
This ^^ Set it and forget it!
 
It's not a flawed device or camera system. It's an intentional decision that most people either prefer, or don't care about (as is evidenced by how many purchase the phones year after year).

The iPhones have always tended towards a slightly warmer color palette. That's widely known (much like Samsungs tend towards heavily saturated colors). As others have pointed out, the iPhone has the ability to capture images in ProRAW so you can apply whatever templates/color palette/etc you want if you don't like the out-of-the-box choices that have been made.
 
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